Murtada here. It’s the week of fall film festivals announcements. We just heard that The Bening is going to New York. Lupita Nyong'o and Rosamund Pike are going to both London and Toronto. Let’s check in with a few others who are going to Venice, Toronto and possibly Telluride (Telluride doesn’t announce its program until its first day but if a film is announced as a Canadian Premiere at TIFF, and it hasn’t appeared at Sundance, it’s assumed to be Telluride bound).
Sally, Dakota, Rooney and more after the jump...
Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins in Maudie
Sally Hawkins - Maudie (TIFF, Telluride)
Where has Sally been hiding since Blue Jasmine (2013)? She appeared in supporting parts in Godzilla and Paddington and a blink and you’ll miss it cameo in The Double. So we are glad to see at the center of a new movie, as an arthritic Nova Scotia woman who becomes an artist and a beloved figure in her community. Is this her Theory of Everything?
Mara with Ben Mendelsohn in Una
Rooney Mara - Una (TIFF, Telluride), The Secret Scripture (TIFF), Lion (TIFF)
Get that post-Carol glow Rooney! Three films in one festival. She’s the girlfriend of a man (Dev Patel), searching for his birth parents in Lion. The big question is, of course, does she have any scenes with Nicole Kidman who’s Patel adopted mother? In The Secret Scripture, Mara and Vanessa Redgrave play the younger and older versions of a mental institution patient who’s led a turbulent life in 1920s and 1930s Ireland.
However we are most excited by Una, an adaptation of the play Blackbird which was recently on Broadway with Michelle Williams. Mara is the title character, who is confronting the older man with whom she had an affair when she was a teenager. Could this be the trump card in this year’s best actress race? After all the last two winners of that Oscar appeared first at TIFF with visceral stories that led them to triumphant acceptance speeches 5 months later.
Amy Adams - Arrival (Venice, TIFF, Telluride), Nocturnal Animals (Venice, TIFF)
Another overachiever! Adams is a linguist trying to connect with aliens in Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, and a woman dealing with her past while reading her ex’s novel in Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals. The ex is Jake Gyllenhaal and lookalike Isla Fisher plays the same character in the fictional part of the movie.
Two films this fall, hmmm we wonder how many roundtables will Amy be able to squeeze in?
Dakota Fanning - Brimstone (Venice, TIFF), American Pastoral (TIFF)
Fanning joins Guy Pearce, and Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Carice van Houten in Brimstone, a gritty revenge western, about a young woman in a frontier community who must go on the run when she is targeted by a diabolical preacher. It’s the English language debut of Dutch director Martin Koolhoven (Winter in Wartime). Fanning is also Ewan McGregor and Jennifer Connelly's radical daughter who becomes a terrorist in the adaptation of Philip Roth's novel, American Pastoral.
Cate Blanchett - Voyage of Time (Venice)
Blanchett is depriving us this year as she is not appearing in any films. However she’s narrating Terrence Malick’s documentary which is described as a “celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse.” At least we get to hear her voice. There are two versions, a short IMAX version narrated by Brad Pitt and a longer one narrated by Cate. Reports online indicate that the Cate version is the one playing Venice.
And we end with this picture, it’s all we need to make this our most anticipated fall festival film. It's Anne Heche and Sandra Oh and the film is called Catfight. Enough said. TIFF- goers we think you are in for a special treat.
Which actress are you most excited to see this fall?